Long runs - strength training

Top of Lava Flow trail in Squamish, BC

For this morning's long run, I chose a big uphill session, which naturally includes a lot of downhill at the end.

I love this run, and was inspired to do it this weekend after reading the following in Run: The Mind-Body Method of Running by Feel by Matt Fitzgerald:

I asked [Haile] Gebrselassie to name his favourite workout. If I had known him better, I would not have been so surprised to learn that his favourite session was also his toughest. 

'Hill training is my favourite,' he said. 'Because that's the one that gives you a lot of problems. Pain. Breathing too much. Struggling too much. Of course, you don't enjoy it during training, but after training, after you reach the top and look down, and say, 'This is what I did,' it gives you confidence.' 

Fitzgerald says he later learned that Gebrselassie was referring to running 90 minutes hard straight up to Entoto Mountain outside of Ethiopia's capital city, Addis Ababa.

Starting from our house in Valleycliffe, we followed Nine-Mile Hill and then took the Lava Flow trail. This took me about 1hr 45 (my running partners turned around after 1hr 10), and most of it was uphill. Our pace was relatively easy, though of course the uphill made that feel hard enough.

I'm planning to incorporate running part of this hill once a week in my preparations for the Vancouver Marathon on May 1 and the Tenderfoot Boogie 50-miler on May 14.

This section is also part of the race course for the Test of Metal mountain bike race, held in June, and the STORMY ultra and relay runs, held in August.

Check out more pictures here